Reflective Report on Academic and Employability Skills Development

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ACADEMIC AND EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS 2
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task..................................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Reference list.................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
There are broader set of skills beyond educational qualifications that can help a person to
become successful in his or her career. Academic and employability skills are essential for
development of qualities and attitudes of employees in a workplace. Nowadays the labour
market in UK has become extremely competitive. Employers look for such candidates who are
capable of performing several tasks in different working environments. Employability and
persona skills are required for collaborating with other people in the workplace and develop the
quality of work. The study will provide guidance on the significance of employability skills and
the gaps between the skills.
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Task
The reflective paper will be developed with the help of Gibb’s reflective cycle. American
sociologist and psychologist Graham Gibbs developed the reflective cycle model in 1988 (Potter,
2015). This model helps people to think logically and systematically about any specific
experiences that has been gained in a specific situation. This model is beneficial for helping
people to realize what can be done for obtaining better result in future.
Figure 1: Gibb’s reflective cycle
(Source: Potter, 2015)
Description
The academic and employability skills are important for performing better in future. I have been
able to obtain good marks in college. The lists of academic skills that is required for performing
better includes academic integrity, time management, research, logical thinking and others. I
have developed team projects in college where I have developed my leadership and
communication skills. Development of such skills has helped me to perform better while
performing in a team. I have worked in Tesco as an employee of marketing department. I have
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found that, there are some skills that can be developed by me. I have also identified skills gap so
that I can be able to develop my skills in future.
Feelings
I have realised that my communication and interpersonal skills have been improved. I used to
face problems while communicating with some people and make them understand about my
views. I have worked in team for completing a project and I have observed that I used to face
problem while communicating with my teammates and sharing ideas with them. I have practiced
this skill and later in Tesco, I realised that I am being able to communicate with my colleagues
more effectively. I have also suggested some ideas in team meetings and I have felt that I am
being able to make my points more understandable to my teammates. In the words of Kanki
(2019), strong communication skills aid all the aspects of professional to personal life. It allows
others to understand one more effectively. It is stated that good communication skill also helps
to mitigate conflicts in a workplace. It is very important to make effective communication while
working in a team so that a collaborative working culture can be ensured (Shamsi, 2017). It is
also beneficial for the development of organisation. I have also been able to develop my team
working skills by developing communication skills.
According to Boies et al. (2015), communication skill is responsible for developing team
working efficiencies. A team is formed with those employees who have a common goal in a
common platform. Misunderstanding can be arisen in an workplace if the communication skills
have not been developed. I have realised that I am performing more effectively in a team. I have
also felt that my positive attitude has helped me to co-operate with the team members while
working in a team. I have always been willing to learn that has helped me to gain knowledge on
new topics. I have found that I am still struggling to finish any task on time. I was being unable
to complete a project on time while studying in college. I have participated in-group projects
during my college time. I used to take more time to complete a task than my other team members
do. I have felt that I was not able to improve my team working skills even after working in Tesco
for one year.
I feel that I can perform more efficiently if I develop my time management skills. I have also
realised that I am also being unable to take part in conflict resolution process effectively.
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Evaluation
In the words of Aeon and Aguinis (2017), time management skill is one of the most important
skills that are beneficial for being more productive in a shorter time. The effectiveness of a team
can be maximized by developing the time management skills of team members. On the other
hand, Jackson (2015) has stated that the quality of work can be affected if the time management
skills are being prioritised. I have poor time management skills, as I tend to pay attention to the
details of any work. It can be considered as the reason behind the delay of my work. I have felt
that it is very important to manage time efficiently while working in a team. According to
Grissom et al. (2015), this skill plays a key role in the development of an organisation. An
organisation can be able to increase its productivity if the time management skill is managed
properly.
I have also realised that my communication and interpersonal skills has been developed by
working in team. Communication skill has helped me to improve my personality as well. Team
working skills have also helped me to develop my personal skills and contribute to the
development of an organisation.
In the words of Doorley and Garcia (2015), it is very important to increase communication
among the team members and participate in the team activities so that chances of conflicts can be
reduced. I have faced issues of misunderstanding while working with a group in college, which
has affected the quality of project. I have felt that I could not take part in resolving the conflicts
and develop strategies immediately. I have also faced the issues of conflicts in workplace also. It
was influencing the working culture of team negatively. I have tried to suggest some ideas for
resolving conflicts among some of my team members, which has not been fruitful. I think that I
should develop my conflict resolution skill for contributing to the development of organisation.
Analysis
I have learned that it is very important to work in a team performance is required for
accomplishing personal and professional. I have the career goal of become the management head
of marketing department and development of these skills will benefit me to achieve my career
goals. I have seen that our working team was formed with those employees who have common
goals. The leader and manager of the team have aligned the goals with the organisational goals
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so that better performance can be achieved. I have gained knowledge on development procedure
of team performance. According to Natvigand and Stark (2016), Tuckman’s team dynamics is
advantageous for the enlargement of the organisation. This model includes four stages such as
forming, storming, norming and performing. In the first and second stage, a team is formed by
matching the skills of employees. In the third and fourth stage team development, employees
learn to work together and helping others for better development. I have found that this process
has been beneficial for enhancing the performance quality of our team.
During my college days, I have also worked in a group, where tasks were allocated to the team
members by analysing their skills so that the working quality of the team can be developed. I
have understood that I will be able to implement such knowledge in future for better
development. I have also understood that the development of communication and interpersonal
skills will help me to develop the leadership skills. This will be beneficial for accomplishing
future career goals. Thus, these skills will also help me to contribute to the development of a
better organisation (Anthony and Garner, 2016). I had both positive and negative experiences
while working in a team. I have always failed to make others understand about my views and
points, which has affected my morale negatively. In Tesco, I have successfully demonstrated and
suggested ideas so that I can be able to contribute to the development of team.
Thus, it can be stated that such development has influenced my morale positively. I feel that I
will be able to produce work that is more effective in future. The positive experiences have
helped me to develop my traits and the negative experiences will help me to grow in future.
I have realised that I need to develop my employability skills for achieving my career goals. I
need to grow time management skills and conflict resolution skills for personal development.
According to Esfandiari et al. (2018), it is very important to complete a task on time so that the
productivity of an organisation can be enhanced. I have found these gaps are preventing me to
function at the highest level. I have learned that the scientific management theory is beneficial
for increasing the productivity of an organisation. In the words of Waring (2016), the task should
be allocated to those employees whose area of specialisation matches with the requirement of the
task. I have observed that out team manager used to allocate tasks to us by matching the tasks
with our area of specialisation. This was helpful for increasing performance level of the
employees. However, the morale of employees has also been enhanced with the help of this
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process. I have realised that I will also be able to manage to finish a work on time without
hurting its quality with the help of these strategies.
Conclusion
This can be concluded that my employability skills and academic will help me to develop my
career goals. The employability and academic skills have been discussed in this report so that
such initiatives can be taken for developing those skills. Communication skills play a key role in
the development of an organisation. I have developed my communication skills, which will help
me to perform better in future. The information that I have gathered by working in a team will
help me to attain my career goals.
Action plan
I will attend conferences and seminars for developing my time management skills. Time
management skills are beneficial for accomplishing the career goals. I have also registered for
online courses so that I can be able to develop such skills. I have also talked to the senior
executives of this organisation to gain knowledge on this field. This will contribute to my
personal developed. I have identified my areas of improvement and I believe that I will be able to
develop by attending to proper classes and training sessions. Thus, the courses will take one
month to be completed. In that time, I will also start self-managed learning for increasing the
development rate. I have implemented these learning processes to my action plan for obtaining
better results. I also need to develop the leadership skills as I have the career goal of leading
employees and managerial head of the marketing department in Tesco. I have observed that my
logical and critical thinking skills have been developed from the previous time, as I can be able
to participate in decision-making process more effectively. However, I will need to develop these
skills also for better development.
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Conclusion
The study concludes that the employability and academic skills are important for the
development of an organisation. The employability skills and academic skills have been
discussed in this study, which shows that these skills are required to be developed to achieve the
career objectives. The importance of team performance and team development has been
discussed. This can be stated that the effective communication has a major role in the
development of team performance. Conflicts can affect the working quality of a team. Effective
communication helps to avoid such toxic reasons of misunderstanding. A person can be able to
achieve his career goals by developing employability and academic skills.
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Reference list
Aeon, B. and Aguinis, H., 2017. It’s about time: New perspectives and insights on time
management. Academy of management perspectives, 31(4), pp.309-330.
Anthony, S. and Garner, B., 2016. Teaching soft skills to business students: An analysis of
multiple pedagogical methods. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 79(3),
pp.360-370.
Boies, K., Fiset, J. and Gill, H., 2015. Communication and trust are key: Unlocking the
relationship between leadership and team performance and creativity. The Leadership
Quarterly, 26(6), pp.1080-1094.
Doorley, J. and Garcia, H.F., 2015. Reputation management: The key to successful public
relations and corporate communication. Routledge.
Esfandiari, M., Basu Roy, S. and Amer-Yahia, S., 2018, October. Explicit Preference Elicitation
for Task Completion Time. In Proceedings of the 27th ACM International Conference on
Information and Knowledge Management (pp. 1233-1242). ACM.
Grissom, J.A., Loeb, S. and Mitani, H., 2015. Principal time management skills: Explaining
patterns in principals’ time use, job stress, and perceived effectiveness. Journal of Educational
Administration, 53(6), pp.773-793.
Jackson, D., 2015. Employability skill development in work-integrated learning: Barriers and
best practice. Studies in Higher Education, 40(2), pp.350-367.
Kanki, B.G., 2019. Communication and crew resource management. In Crew resource
management (pp. 103-137). Academic Press.
Natvig, D. and Stark, N.L., 2016. A project team analysis using Tuckman's model of small-group
development. Journal of Nursing Education, 55(12), pp.675-681.
Potter, C., 2015. Leadership development: an applied comparison of Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle and
Scharmer’s Theory U. Industrial and Commercial Training, 47(6), pp.336-342.
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Shamsi, A., 2017. Relationship between Knowledge Management and Managerial Skills: The
Role of Creative Thinking. Форсайт, 11(4 (eng)).
Waring, S.P., 2016. Taylorism transformed: Scientific management theory since 1945. UNC
Press Books.
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